This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link.

It’s been a while since I did a thankful thought!

I’m thankful that my sister and parents live close because I have built in babysitters for a pastor’s retreat my husband and I will go on for the next couple of days.

I guess I should be thankful that my kids don’t want us to leave. I thought they would be excited about having Aunt stay with them and going to their grandparent’s house, but you never can tell. I know they will have a good time tomorrow and Friday.

I am thankful for a man in our church who took our family pictures. Taking family pictures is not his specialty and trying to deal with 2 squirmy little ones, get us all to smile, consider the light . . . let me tell you, he was a blessing from God. I will share more pictures at a later date, but here was one of them.

Here are the rules for this linky:

The thoughtful topics for your posts could be related to but not limited to the following topics:*homemaking*homeschooling*devotional or Biblical posts*Christian in nature*family/marriage*inspirational*

Do NOT link up recipes, reviews, giveaways, diy, or crafts.

Link up to three posts that have not been linked up to this linky previously!

We would love it if you visited a couple other posts and left a comment or shared/pinned the post!

If you include your e-mail in the linky form below you will be added to a weekly reminder e-mail when the link party goes live. Your e-mail will not to added to any other lists or given out.

We would love if you followed your hosts on some form of social media, but this is not required. Our hope is that these posts will be encouraging, uplifting, and a source of good reading for you.

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link.

I’ve been pulling late nights trying to keep up with blogging, so instead of doing a new recipe, I re-did some pictures for my recipe of Beef Nacho Pie.

I made it for dinner last night as I had my new-to-me camera in, I had to take some pictures of it. My kids do not like sour cream or anything with any spice in it (they are the pickiest kids ever), so my husband and I thoroughly enjoyed eating it by ourselves. It really isn’t spicy. It calls for 2 Tablespoons of taco seasoning, and I put in one. Oh well, it was there loss.

This is Anna’s last week as our co-host! She has helped us out for 2 months. I am so thankful for her help. Please stop by her blog and give her some follow love!

We would love to have you link up to three of your old or new food posts!

Here are just a few requests for this linky:

PLEASEfollow the hosts and co-hosts of this party through one of their social media listed below. They visit your post, leave a comment, and pin your post. Just pick one (or more) of the options below and please follow them.

By linking up, you agree to let any of the hosts or co-hosts use your pictures and links if they decide to feature your post. Your photo may also be used for promotion on any of their social media outlets.

If you include your e-mail in the linky form below you will be added to a weekly reminder e-mail when the link party goes live. Your e-mail will not to added to any other lists or given out.

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link.

Fall is flying by, and it has been an expensive fall for us.

Here is our life in bullet points!

In the past two weeks, we have had our two cars repaired; bought a new-to-me camera that will be my first DSLR (and hopefully my last) as my other camera was deemed irreparable and I am getting a check in the mail for it; I am getting my computer fixed (the bottom of the laptop is broken, but it works great), my food processor broke . . . .

So I am calling a stop to the money flow and back to saving! (Oh, our rental house looks like the roof is buckling. We have an awesome roofer friend who will come look at us and tell us his expert opinion soon.)

School is going well. My middle three seem to have gotten into a good schedule, my littlest is flying through her books at home with mommy, and I have discovered that my oldest is not as independent as she says she is. She is doing great on her studies, but I need to make her start studying earlier than she thinks she needs to begin so that we do not have late night fits and tears.

We had our family pictures taken by another friend yesterday (which meant that I also spent some money on clothes–but I saved money by not going into a studio.) I’m just hoping he got some good pictures as we had a hard time getting #4 and #5 to cooperate, and #3 has a hard time smiling authentically for a camera unless it is candid. Talk about some stress for the photographer and me. What a sweet man to deal with our family, and Joshua will be giving him an apology tomorrow in church for his lack or cooperation.

We did a garage sale last weekend and made $130+ to help put a dent in all our expenses and got rid of a ton of stuff. Our house doesn’t look like we got rid of anything; but believe me, we did!

It was so nice that we were also able to go on one more walk down to the duck pond, where there were no ducks or geese. I guess they all flew south for the winter, but it was a great walk!

And we had a couple of friends over for a sleepover as they are moving in a week or so. I will have a very sad third grader in a couple of weeks!

In the blogging world, I finished a guest post for another blogger. I tried to get Kiley demonstrate saying, “SHH!” as my post was on teaching your child to have a quiet spirit.

I ended up using the first picture here, and gave up when we got to what she looked like in the second and third pictures. I learned that she really likes Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood as she had been watching it when I tried to get her to be my model.

I hope you are having a great fall! I hope you are enjoying the Thoughtful Thursdays posts as much as I am. I am still trying to keep focused this week on this verse:

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link.

I started off by saying September should be an easy schedule concerning my personal priorities as my kids were getting back into school.

That is now laughable. I have been blogging more, yet I feel like I am always behind. I had high goals, yet many did not get done.

I did get many blogging goals done. These goals took so much of my time that I am rethinking my blogging goals.

Do more Monday posts on Creative K Kids that are diy, printables, and crafty posts. I am moving my Bloggers Brags Pinterest Party over to The Ultimate Linky this Monday to free up more time for crafty posts. I have a whole bunch of ideas in my head and saved on Pinterest. I just need to have the time to flesh them out.

Get a printable linky going by October.

Do a Fall Blog Hop.

Get a guest post ready.

Get caught up on a Google Adsense and a Monetization project that are going on in different groups I am in. –didn’t even touch this, which I really want to do! I am hoping to make copies and do eventually.

I am starting in a new tribe this month.

Get my 3 contributor posts done. –Only did 2 this month, and need to start on next month’s posts.

Get a freebie subscriber project done.

Continue to work on Creative K Kids Landing pages and old posts.

Work on the security of The Ultimate Linky. — I am thinking of merging my two blogs, so I will no longer have to do this.

I got hardly any of my personal goals done:

To do my devotions daily. — I was sporadic. My Thoughtful Thursdays help me a little in this area.

To walk after I drop Joshua off at school.– I started well, and then got sick or something, and then I never got back into it.

To start reading my devotional books again. — not at all

To get into a couple religious book studies. — They start in October. I did start Financial Peace University (Dave Ramsey) on Wednesday nights, but it’s not really a religious book study.

Finish Karis’s quilt. –Didn’t touch it

Work on crafty projects with the girls. –Did this.

Family priorities:

To do school with Kiley. — We were really good at this.

To work on character training with Kiley and Joshua. — This still needs more work, but we are trying!

To read aloud to the kids a couple nights a week.

To work with my oldest girls to be a help around the house. — They were overwhelmed with school work most nights, cross country, and music practice. They did some on the weekends though.

House priorities:

To clean out some kitchen cabinets.

To clean out the refrigerator.

Get a garage sale ready.

October’s Goals:

Blogging:

Get my 3 contributor posts done.

Continue to work on Creative K Kids Landing pages and old posts.

Get a new header/logo

Get ready to merge the two blogs. I have too much going on. I am going to bring some of my parties over to Creative K Kids and make a “Start Here” Page, so people can decide to go to the parties or the posts that are now on Creative K Kids. I will have to get some help to figure out how to keep the email lists all separate. It will be a bit of a headache and will take me time to figure it all out; but in the long run, it will save me money and time as I will cut out 5-6 parties a week.

Put together a Thanksgiving blog hop (linky party).

Personal goals:

To do my devotions daily.

To pray more.

To walk after I drop Joshua off at school.

To get into a couple religious book studies.

Finish Karis’s quilt.

To get started on digital scrapbooks/calendars that will be Christmas presents.

Family priorities:

To do school with Kiley.

To continue to work on character training with Kiley and Joshua.

To read aloud to the kids a couple nights a week.

To focus on attitude with my older girls.

To clean up clutter.

How are you doing on your goals?

If you would like to be part of our blogging goals group, then you can ask to join the Facebook group HERE. A group of bloggers all provide the link-up starting on the last Friday of every month (some do it later in the month than that day), and it remains open most of the month!

If you linked up and would like to grab the button to remind you where the link-up is, please feel free to!

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link.

My thoughts of the week:

I am tired.

I get discouraged with dealing with a child’s attitude.

I have a lot to do.

Things keep breaking. (Our brake line, brakes, and battery on our car; van needed body work done, I broke our camera–I’m so thankful we had a warranty, my laptop is breaking at a hinge (a friend should fix it with the same model I bought off ebay for parts), and the food processor just broke!)

So what do I do? Many times I fret or worry or waste time.

What should I do?

Click on the picture to print!

So instead of writing a long post or even going to look for posts to feature, I’m going to stop typing so that I can go and “Be Still!” I encourage you to find some time to “Be still” as well!

Here are the rules for this linky:

The thoughtful topics for your posts could be related to but not limited to the following topics:*homemaking*homeschooling*devotional or Biblical posts*Christian in nature*family/marriage*inspirational*

Do NOT link up recipes, reviews, giveaways, diy, or crafts.

Link up to three posts that have not been linked up to this linky previously!

We would love it if you visited a couple other posts and left a comment or shared/pinned the post!

If you include your e-mail in the linky form below you will be added to a weekly reminder e-mail when the link party goes live. Your e-mail will not to added to any other lists or given out.

We would love if you followed your hosts on some form of social media, but this is not required. Our hope is that these posts will be encouraging, uplifting, and a source of good reading for you.

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link.

I was able to post a Fall Printable/Craft for TOTS Family where I contribute. I was told it would post today, but it looks like it is posting tomorrow. So you can go over when it is live to print out the printable! Then go outside and have some leaf fun! You can even make it educational fun, if you want!

You can also link up any of your fall posts to the Fantabulous Fall Linky Party. Six bloggers all wrote their own fall posts, and then added the linky for any other fall posts that are being written. For being a party that is only seasonal, it is doing great! We have now 52 posts linked up since Friday! The linky will stay open until October 31, and we will pin your posts!

If you would ever like to be in a Seasonal Linky Party like the one you see above, please ask to join THIS FACEBOOK GROUP. We are planning to do a Thanksgiving Linky Party/Blog Hop on Friday, October 17 and a Christmas Linky Party/Blog Hop on Friday, November 14. You write your own post, but you will get your the very beginning and ending of your post given to you which will include the linky script. Then we all pin and comment on some posts! Just because you are part of the group does not mean you have to do all the linky parties. You can pick the ones that would fit your niche or do the ones you have time for.

In the Thanksgiving linky party/blog hop in October, some of us will be sharing a group giveaway opportunity for bloggers that many of us are doing. Then on the Christmas linky party/blog hop on November 14, whoever is doing the giveaway will have it on our Christmas post. You do NOThave to do the giveaway to participate in the Christmas linky party, and you do NOT have to do the blog hop to do the giveaway. Both can be separate. But for us who are doing both, it seems like a good time to put a Cash for Christmas giveaway on the Christmas linky party.

The giveaway will end on the Wednesday night before Christmas, and we will email the gift cards to the winner on Thursday morning so that they have the cash for all the Thanksgiving/Black Friday sales. How fun is that! We already have enough participants to ensure one $50 Amazon gift card and one $25 Target gift card. The more bloggers that participate will mean the more prizes we can offer!

Go HEREto get more information about participting in The Cash for Christmas Giveaway.

**I usually use semi-sweet chocolate chips, but milk chocolate could be used.

**My directions say to cut the bars before the chocolate is cooled, but I almost always wait until after the chocolate is cooled. The chocolate could be hard to cut, so you may want to cut before it is completely hardened or use a sharp knife.

We would love to have you link up to three of your old or new food posts!

Here are just a few requests for this linky:

PLEASEfollow the hosts and co-hosts of this party through one of their social media listed below. They visit your post, leave a comment, and pin your post. Just pick one (or more) of the options below and please follow them.

By linking up, you agree to let any of the hosts or co-hosts use your pictures and links if they decide to feature your post. Your photo may also be used for promotion on any of their social media outlets.

If you include your e-mail in the linky form below you will be added to a weekly reminder e-mail when the link party goes live. Your e-mail will not to added to any other lists or given out.

This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. You will not pay more when buying a product through my link.

Here are the verses for C and D. We are now caught up with my son’s Kindergarten class!

You can click on the pictures to print the verse you would like to have.

Click on this picture to print.

Click on this picture to print.

Click on this picture to print.

Click on this picture to print.

You can link up to the Bloggers Brags Pinterest Party today HERE. We pin every link! You can also link up to the Pinterest Linky Party HERE to get more followers on Pinterest and to get one pin re-pinned!

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Hi! Our family has five wonderful children! Four of the children are girls that all have names starting with K! Tammy is the mom who shares the crafts, recipes, and pictures of the family! Go here to read more!